1/19/2019 EDGE Boston, MA :: Let’s Talk HIV: "United in Anger" -- The ACT UP Doc

Search 30° Boston, MA Sign In | Register

News A&E Biz Tech Money Cars Style Health Travel Nightlife Pride Directory Calendar

News » AIDS Let’s Talk HIV: "United in Anger" -- The ACT UP Doc by Michael Petrelis EDGE Media Network Contributor Saturday Dec 17, 2011

PRINT EMAIL COMMENTS (0)

Before there was ACT UP, there was the Lavender Hill Mob. We were a handful of queer and HIV-positive people with an activist agenda of zapping the powerful. Active from 1985 through 1987, the Mob's pinnacle of media and gay community attention was in February of 1987 at an HIV conference in organized by the Centers for Disease Control.

The ocial topic was whether patients entering hospitals should undergo mandatory testing for exposure to HIV, but that changed the night before the conference began when Mob members showed up at the cocktail Popular Stories in News party in crude, mock Nazi concentration camp shirts and hats with pink triangles. We also had literature to After 17 Months, distribute dismissing mandatory testing of anyone and demanding gay-positive HIV prevention messages and Grindr Lays O Sta programs from the CDC. of LGBTQ News Site It was no more AIDS business as usual and the Mob generated a feature in the New York Times about the new INTO anger in the homosexual community and previously private divisions becoming fodder for public discussion. On the conference's nal day, we zapped the press conference of the national gay and AIDS organizations Reports: 'Conversion' and leaders, and brought the CDC's last plenary session to an abrupt halt when we stood in front of the stage App Kicked O Apple, with our Lavender Hill Mob banner and hollered for expanded federal funds for treatment research. Did I Amazon Lingers on mention that CNN had two crews covering everything and our zaps were in heavy rotation on the station's Google Play Headline News every half hour? When we returned to New York, I received a phone call. Mutual of Omaha "I'm making an important speech next week at the gay community center about the AIDS plague. It will have Changes PrEP Policy a monumental impact and I want you there -- with ten of your friends. There are no excuses for your for Insurance absence," said , the rst time we ever spoke. "Now, when can we have lunch and chat?" Applicants

He was calling everyone to order them to be at his speech, which was hastily arranged when writer Nora Ephron, who was originally scheduled to speak at a regular forum at the community center but had the u, cancelled. Win Free Stu! If it's possible that Larry had even more than his usual high-dose of urgency pushing him in March 1987, it was because all of us scared shitless people on the frontlines were terried at all the disgurement and BOSTON, MA deaths engulng us with our own government refusing to give a damn. Tickets to see JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL in The All of us in the Mob, along with hundreds of others, were at the talk that changed the world for the better. Origin Of Love Tour on 3/2 at After Larry gave us his angry we-better-get-our-fucking-act-together speech and it was time for the audience the Shubert! :: Boston to pipe up, I made a short appeal for people to get arrested the following week at the Food and Drug Administration inspection bureau in Brooklyn over lack of safe and eective treatments.

That idea was rejected, but many folks quickly followed I made a short appeal to get arrested...That idea with suggestions, criticisms, open hearts and minds ready was rejected, but I was quickly followed by many to start being publicly angry over AIDS, and ACT UP was folks with suggestions and criticisms and open born. hearts and minds ready to start being publicly angry over AIDS, and ACT UP was born. Fast forward to the present day and the recent unveiling of the trailer for "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP" documentary, co-directed by Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard, who were veterans of the group during its heyday.

They've taken footage of their ACT UP Oral History Project interviews, and culled videos of key demonstrations and heated planning meetings to create this lm. I cannot recall the budget, but when I requested scal transparency from Sarah and Jim they immediately disclosed gures and funding sources.

With as much objectivity as I can muster (given that I twice appear in the trailer and feel much pride seeing old demonstrations), while remembering our dead who appear full of life and anger, I nd the trailer is quite eective at providing great visuals of our protests. https://boston.edgemedianetwork.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=aids&sc3=&id=127987 1/3 1/19/2019 EDGE Boston, MA :: Let’s Talk HIV: "United in Anger" -- The ACT UP Doc I am curious about the documentary, and want to see how it measures up as an historical record of the awfulness and fabulousness that were the AIDS crisis and activism back then. Since I've not seen the other recent AIDS docs "We Were Here" and "30 Years From Here", I'll await the word of folks regarding how to best contextualize each of the lms.

As a cineaste, I've often wondered where is our "Shoah", the nine-hour documentary about the Holocaust. It was presented without any historical photographs or Nazi propaganda lms that calmly delve into the machinations of rounding up the Jews, transporting them to concentration camps, and exterminating them. "Shoah" is an impossibly high standard, as both a political record and moral reconciliation and a work of profound cinematic art.

No word yet on when "United in Anger" will make the festival circuit rounds or if it can score a distribution deal that would bring it to audiences in urban markets, but when it plays in , I intend to be in the audience.

To watch a trailer of the movie, visit http://vimeo.com/33185730

Michael Petrelis was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 when he was living in . He was an original co- founder of ACT UP, and credits the group and his activism with directly contributing to his surviving and thriving. Since 1995, he's lived in San Francisco where is happily partnered to his husbear of 15 years Michael Merrigan. When not agitating for social justice, he can be found watching foreign lms around the Bay Area. Be sure to check out his blog: http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com.

Comments

Add New Comment

Comments on Facebook

0 Comments Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...

Facebook Comments Plugin

INSIDE EDGE

Expert: Comatose Hit the Slopes During Experimental App Might Watch: Hamburger 'Pose' Star Billy Porter Miss You Like Hell Woman May Not Have 'Learn to Ski and Spot Drug Overdoses in Mary's Owner Claims Shares Meaning of NYC Shown Pregnancy Signs Snowboard Month' Time to Help Health Dept. 'Targeted' Pride Business with Anti-Gay Bias, Made Up Hep-A Story

https://boston.edgemedianetwork.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=aids&sc3=&id=127987 2/3